(reviewing old work) Painting 6: Self portrait: distorting the human figure 2

This was my exam piece for A-Level Art and was painted in 15 hours. The project was called : The Human Form. I chose to explore ways of distorting the human body by looking from different perspectives. I painted this image on MDF that was a little larger than A2 in oil paints.
Here is the original image:


I chose this particular image because:

• It featured body distortion due to perspective.
• the wind making movement in my hair.
• the bright white background, adding interest, but not distracting the viewer from the main focus of the image: the figure.
• there are ripples around the feet because I was moving my feet (I wanted a lot of movement in the image).
• the body creates a nice, fluid shape.
  

parts of the painting I'm happy with:

I'm happy with how the face turned out (although I don't remember painting my cheeks orange - bad lighting whilst taking the photo of this painting, sorry!). I used a tan colour to frame my face, helping my skin tone fade into my hairline. I learnt, whilst painting this piece, that to create the look of fine strands of hair, I needed to use a lighter colour than my own hair colour. I think it turned out very well.

This was my second try at painting water, and I think I improved in that department. I made my submerged feet a lot lighter than the rest of my body. I am happy that learnt new things in this project, and that I embraced the challenges.